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May 15 2015

Are you measuring your success?

sandra

Believe it or not we’re quickly approaching the end of the first half of 2015! How are you progressing on the goals you set for yourself this year? If you’re not sure, then you need to consider creating metrics and tracking them regularly for the rest of the year.

Setting benchmarks in your business is important. If you don’t establish targets towards your goals, then you won’t know how far you’re getting. It’s easy to keep yourself busy with really getting any closer towards your goals without setting short-term goals.

If you feel like your momentum is slipping, then consider attaching rewards to each benchmark as incentive. It doesn’t have to be something extravagant. You want to make sure the reward is a meaningful one so that it provides the right motivation. Think about things that you’ve wanted to do for yourself but haven’t made the time to do and build it into your incentives!

If you’re looking for another way to stay on track, share your goals with someone your trust! Ask them to keep you accountable. Choose a scheduled time to check-in. To really make it powerful, ask them what goals they’re working on, so that the accountability is reciprocal. Just like a workout buddy is what you need to get your butt to the gym sometimes, having someone hold you accountable to your goals keeps you going, even when you feel like giving up.

Another reason that you might be struggling to measure your success might be the lack of a plan altogether! You need a roadmap to guide you towards your destination. I’m sure we’ve all heard it said that a failure to plan is a plan to fail. It’s never too late to develop a plan and put it in place. There’s still a lot of time to make this year your best one yet!

Take the time to figure out a 30, 60 and 90 day plan. When you meet the target set for each of those plans, celebrate! What are you committing to doing in the next 7 days to get you closer to your goals for the year?  Make sure to share it with a friend, or if you’re feeling bold – put it out there in the comments section below!

Sandra Dawes is a certified life coach specializing in helping women who feel unfulfilled with their 9-5 follow their dreams and pursue their passions. She holds an Honours BA, an MBA as well as a certificate in Dispute Resolution.She has completed her first book,Embrace Your Destiny: 12 Steps to Living the Life You Deserve!

Connect:

www.embraceyourdestiny.ca

www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestiny

www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestinythebook

www.twitter.com/sandradawes

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Written by Dwania Peele · Categorized: Sandra Dawes · Tagged: benchmarks, business, Business Woman, Canadian Small Business Women, Embrace Your Destiny, goals, measuring, plan, Sandra Dawes, success, targets

Apr 09 2015

“I need a social media person” – Do you really need a social media person? – Part 1

Karima

After reading the recent article “Is Social Media Worth It For Small Businesses?” on Forbes.com, I realized that one of the reasons small businesses are disappointed with their social media hires is because they don’t know the roles and skills required to set themselves up for success on social media.

In the 15 years I have been dedicating my practice to helping businesses expand their online presence and (in the last 6 years) growth utilizing social media, I have heard business owners and top-level executives say “I need a social media person”. To me, this affirmation equates to saying “I need doctor” and once you’ve said it, chances are you will need a specialist. It’s the same with social media.

Social Media as a tool for growth

Unlike large organizations who typically have a social media (senior) manager and 1) with multiple direct reports or 2) agencies who manage specific areas of social media, small and medium organization are left to hire a jack-of-all trades who scramble to do EVERYTHING on social media.

Let me back up a little… Although a lot of young people hold Social Media positions, the top level positions are usually given to more seasoned marketing or digital professionals because although social media is about Facebook and Twitter, and blogs and Instagram, it’s also and primarily about business and strategic thinking. Now that the wonders of social media have spread to the world of business, engaging on social media has become a necessity for survival. And your business needs to jump on that bandwagon before your competitors overtake you!

Social media allows you to respond to your customers’ wants and needs immediately. You can boost sales, and people will be more receptive to your message. And let’s not leave out the most important fact of all: your competition is already there.

So, how do you build a solid team while maintaining cost-effectiveness?

You must have a business-focused social media professional come and do a diagnostic of your needs. Whether your company is just launching or is already in business, our program is designed to support you and help grow your online presence.

Identify and define roles

By identifying the roles and skills it takes to make your business successful, you will better reach out to the right people and organize their time based on needs and objectives. Below are some of the primary social media roles and skills that will get you going fast.

  • Strategist: A strategist, pretty much like all strategists in every industry, researches, benchmarks, and creates a plan and tactics. The strategy, when done well, identifies opportunities for growth and for It also determines how and where to invest to meet business objectives. A social media strategist is no different.
  • Project coordinator/manager: A project coordinator is someone who will keep you on budget, on time, and within scope. A fabulous project manager will also identify opportunities along the way and allow you to expand your reach and objectives. Hiring a part-time social media project manager is the key to your success.
  • Content producer: Online content can be blogs, videos, Facebook updates, Tweets, Instagram and Pinterest pictures or even YouTube videos. There is a plethora of types of content and platforms ranging from real-time to scheduled, from on the go to scripted, and from organic to paid. The importance of content is to identify your objectives and build a strategy around them.
  • Community manager: A true community manager builds and grows online An online community is a virtual community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums, etc.). Those who wish to be a part of an online community usually have to become a member via a specific site and necessarily need an internet connection.

I will explore other roles and skills in an upcoming blog post.

Why are online communities important for businesses?

Being a member of online communities for businesses and continually establishing and maintaining online relationships is critical to the success of your business. With the extreme popularity of social media, many people are excited about interacting and developing relationships with others whom they feel they can trust and who they consider experts in their industry.

At the heart of your success is the human element. Once people get to know you, and you get to know them, they will want what you are offering and will gladly tell others about what you are offering too.

Karima-Catherine is the co-founder of Red Dot Digital, a digital agency that strives to deliver top-notch solutions to various clients.  Red Dot Digital drives real, meaningful, quantifiable business outcomes for companies. Karima-Catherine is also the co-moderator of #MMchat, a Twitter weekly forum which focuses on business, marketing and social media.  

Connect with Karima-Catherine:

karima@reddotdigital.net

Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest

 

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Written by Dwania Peele · Categorized: Karima-Catherine Goundiam · Tagged: benchmarks, blogs, boost sales, Budget, business thinking, Canadian Small Business Women, Community manager, competitors, Content Producer, cost effectiveness, customers, define roles, diagnostics, entrepreneur, Facebook, Forbes.com, human element, identify roles, Intagram, Karima-Catherine Goundiam, online community, organizations, Pinterest, plan, Project coordinator, Project manager, Red Dot Digital, researches, small business, social media, strategic thinking, Strategist, tactics, tools, Twitter, YouTube

May 15 2014

Are we there yet?

sandra

We all have goals.  Some are more concrete than others.  Do you track your progress?  Do you set benchmarks that help you to know when the finish line is approaching?  Or are you just stumbling through, hoping that you will be guided somehow towards the path to accomplishing your goals?

I know that I get more done when I have concrete targets established for any goal I’m pursuing.  When I was writing my book, the goal was a minimum of 4 pages a day.  The target wasn’t always met, sometimes I fell short, other times I surpassed the daily goal.  Not only did I have daily targets, but I had also set a deadline for when I wanted to have the first draft of my book complete.  The daily targets and checking in to see where I was at the end of each week, kept me motivated and focused.

We hear so much about success factors to making our goals a reality.  Accountability partners, writing them down, and setting targets are all things we are told will help us to make our dreams come true.  But what happens when we put all these things in place and then never review the plan to make sure it still makes sense?  What if we get so caught up in being “busy” that we forget to measure if our business is translating into productivity?

Everyone’s talking about how busy they are, but shouldn’t we be talking about how productive we are?  I don’t know about you, but I can be busy all day and not have anything meaningful to show for it!  If you’re busyness isn’t get you closer to achieving your goals, then you might as well be spending your time sleeping or watching television.  If the journey to achieving your goals was a road trip, you may be stuck always taking the scenic route, stopping at every fruit stand and antique shop along the way rather than taking the quick bathroom break and getting back in the car.  If you’re not in any hurry to achieve your goals, there’s nothing wrong with the scenic route.  If the achievement of your goals is just a means to something bigger, then enjoy the ride, but remember to stay focused on the destination.

You may be thinking that it’s too late to get your goals back on track and make them happen this year, but it isn’t!  You just have to get clear on what you want to get done by the end of the year and break it down into monthly, weekly and even daily targets!  Once you know your numbers, you’ll have a clearer idea of what you need to do to make it happen!  If you’re not clear on where to start, I can help!

Clarity on the checkpoints makes the journey more enjoyable.  Regardless of how ineffective you may feel like you’re being at times, you have tangible evidence that illustrates just how far you’ve come!  Sometimes, that is just the motivation we need to keep the momentum going, even when it feels like we’re running on fumes.  The good news is, at least you’ll know when you’re next service stop is coming so you can refuel 🙂

Sandra Dawes is a certified life coach specializing in helping women who feel unfulfilled with their 9-5 follow their dreams and pursue their passions. She holds an Honours BA, an MBA as well as a certificate in Dispute Resolution.She has completed her first book,Embrace Your Destiny: 12 Steps to Living the Life You Deserve!

Connect: 
www.embraceyourdestiny.ca
www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestiny

www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestinythebook
www.twitter.com/sandradawes

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Written by Dwania Peele · Categorized: Sandra Dawes · Tagged: accomplish, accountability, accountability partners, back on track, benchmarks, business development, Business Woman, Canadian Small Business Women, clarity, coaching, daily targets, Embrace Your Destiny, entrepreneur, goal pursuit, goals, monthly targets, progress, Sandra Dawes, scenic route, small business, small business development, small business owners, targets, weekly targets

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